Oblivion is the videogame definition of "accidental genius". If you dissected everything that's wrong with it, it would look like a mess of game... and it is, but Oblivion is a sui generis case where the good absorbs you so much (I can still play it any day and spent 7+ hours messing around the same way I did 15 years ago) it brainwashes you into thinking the bad is part of the experience. You know it's not true, but you can't help but believe it when much more recent, ambitious and technically apt games today that have way more budget struggle to be as fun as this 16 year old decrepit buggy ass game.

For anyone reading this: don't play the original mode. Playing alongside the AI is horrible and I really don't care about the in-game interactions. The LONE HERO mode is the way to go: the fights are harder, not having 4 proton beans in the screen at all times makes enemy patterns much more readable and enjoyable, and there's no ingame dialogue. This makes some moments awkward as the scenes with dialogue stay in there without much happening, and the difficulty becomes insanely unbalanced and jank at times... but you know what? It makes the game a decent time! (if you don't mind the jank)

The original Catherine is one of my favourite games of all time. Easily top 5. It's a game that showcases how to make a modern arcade puzzle game with intricate layouts and lots of style, kinda like what Atlus has been making for decades with JRPGs, as SMT has evolved as one of the pillars of the JRPG genre with the massive interesting layouts of the mainline games and the style of both key entries (Nocturne) and spin offs (Persona).

However, this isn't why the game got so famous in the mainstream.

"Katherine or Catherine: Which will you choose?". The game's advertisement banked a lot on the pseudo-date-sim aspects of the game (and no, this isn't a VN people, it's a puzzle game), and to be fair it was a very smart move commercially and it did deliver a lot of sales.

So when it came time to rerelease the game, they thought the best move would be to add a third route, a third love interest. Kinda like what they did with P3FES adding more Social Links on top of Persona 3, but here's the deal:

It was a bad idea. And even a worse idea considering it was Atlus who was going to make it.

The original Catherine's plot was pretty straightforward and balanced, in the sense that the two routes were aligned with the ideas of "order and chaos". It didn't overstay its welcome. It was well paced. It was easy to follow...

Full Body instead complicates things. Now for every scene relating to the Catherine/Katherine situation, we have an equally long but much more awkward and barely directed scene dedicated to Rin, the new character of the game. It doubles the length of the plot sections, makes them feel thrice as long, and suddenly a welcome addition to an arcade puzzle game becomes the worst part about it. It's like the Itchy and Scratchy and Poochy show where every 5 minutes someone has to go "What's Rin doing by the way?"

And that's just on how it's executed in terms of directing, flow and cohesion, because it gets worse once you realize Rin is the worst character of the game and a very atrocious attempt by Atlus to introduce an LGTB route. I get what they were trying to do, and the underlying intentions ain't malicious, it's just the fact that Atlus is very very very very very very very very very very VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY incompetent at it.

I played this with a friend at launch. We're both huge fans of the original, and with each chapter of the story, we increasingly found ourselves pausing the game to drink ANYTHING because we just were too much sober to handle whatever the hell the game was trying to convey.

It's more of a shame considering the original game had an LGTB plot hiding in plain sight, and this was the perfect opportunity to fix the issues it had, because the character in question is one of the best characters of the whole cast. But no, instead we get Rin.

We played through the whole Rin route and since then we haven't touched the story mode even once and we don't feel motivated to do so. There's a whole ton of new endings and scenes. I've seen a couple of them on Youtube, and I've heard there are some that are pretty problematic. No thanks, I'll stick with the original.

It's a shame too because the game itself has a new remix mode that's AMAZING. And the Rapunzel minigame also got new stages. And the versus and Babel modes also got new stages (and a random stage selector in VS, which I deeply appreciate). As a hardcore Catherine fan, I LOVE these, but there are also some downsides. Stages now are pretty erratic difficulty-wise as when you're near death you'll be granted a not-so-realiable slowdown that acts as a grace period and subtracts from the OGs tension, while also substitutes the stage's theme with a generic ass piano song that's a huge turn off, and it can't be turned off!!!!

But aside from that, I do like a lot the new small additions. The new opening arrange by Shoji Meguro is one of my favourite songs of all time. The way the game now shows you grabbable ledges is very much welcomed in later stages. Some quality of life improvements as the camera make some sections less chaotic...

You see, in some ways, it is the Catherine rerelease I've always wanted, but in some ways it's anything but. So, because most of the problems are centered around the story content, my recommendation is to play the original first, get your feet wet, then do a playthrough of the Difficult stages, and then go for Full Body Remix mode as a level expansion pack. You'll have the best first introduction to Catherine, and you won't miss out on what's good about Full Body. Don't play Full Body first. Trust me. People talk about it like it's the "ultimate version" because it has all the Catherine content, but as a whole the original is the better experience and the one release with the most sense of dignity BY FAR. It usually goes on sale on Steam for pretty cheap, so please try it first.

Producer: How's the development on the Batman game?
Developer: BATMAN??? I THOUGHT YOU SAID PAC-MAN!!!
Producer: ARE YOU KIDDING ME???
Developer: I'M DEAD SERIOUS!!!!!!!!
Producer: DUDE, WE'RE SENDING THE GAME TO FACTORY THIS WEEKEND. WE'RE SCREWED
Developer: WAIT... I THINK I HAVE AN IDEA.

And that's how the Turbografx 16 Batman came to be.

Every SNK game that used the rotatory stick has been given then dual stick treatment and as such they've become the definitive version to play these. Having played them in the past, I can assure you that not even emulation can give you what's presented here.

The rest of the games play as they should, there's a decent ammount of extra materials, and there's even the console version of the games that have them.

One of the best compilations in recent years.

The amount of people I've seen that bought this just to make that World 2 remake happen is insane, and I'm one of them.

But on its own it's a great remake that's almost 1:1 with the original. It's a very simple and unambitious game that ends up finding a nice groove in its mix of linear game design with light collect-a-thon elements.

The remake gives a new coat of paint to the whole thing, which looks great, and there's been some touch-ups and QoL improvements that make the journey smoother. Some of the bosses have been severely improved while maintining the core design (except the 4th boss battle, which has been overhauled to be something much much better) The only thing I'm kinda iffy about is the little delay of the bounce attack to make it less frantic for newcomers (which I understand and doesn't affect the core experience) but everything else? Very solid shit.

Now about that World 2 Remake..........